Silicon Allee

One of the things we still need to work on in Berlinis connecting people better. ;) So some notes and links. * Introductory notes * Entry points / sites * Finding out about events * Getting a job * Got links? Please provide _________________ INTRODUCTORY NOTES _________________ Per se there are two different circles of startup folk in Germany. The german / Germany oriented ones, what I usually call "the victims of the language island" (everything in Germany is dubbed - movies, tv, books). The second, more interesting level is the international mindset, the people who are mentally oriented toward silicon valley. Both group usually do not mingle and the following applies for that second group and explain part of the reason why Berlin is special. This group has accepted english as their lingua franca and people come from all over the world, enjoying not only the benefits listed in the other comments, but the feeling of "being able to make it here". The absence of any enterprise like structure due to the past with the wall enables in many ways what Berlin is today. There is of course an echo chamber effect for this group and once you connect, you run into the usual startups very quickly. ;) _________________ ENTRY POINTS _________________ Your Nr 1. starting point for meeting people ;) English speaking Berlin startup group on Facebook with ~2400 members. https://www.facebook.com/groups/159595270791268/ Follow that if you are interested in meeting people and or…

A good way to avoid articles on those big companies is to start reading "region specific" startup blogs or "topic specific" startup blogs. Some of the blogs I follow: by region Arctic Startups (Scandinavia) http://www.arcticstartup.com/ Rude Baguette (France) http://www.rudebaguette.com/ Silicon Allee (Berlin) http://siliconallee.com/ by topic Tnooz (Travel)http://www.tnooz.com/ Search Engine Land http://searchengineland.com/ 3D Printing Industry http://3dprintingindustry.com/

It all sounds interesting and I've been meaning to drop my corporate job for some time now. So is there a Berlin startup news site (preferably in English) so I could get a feel what kind of startups are there? EDIT: http://siliconallee.com/ seems to be the thing I was looing for, anything else?

Obligatory links 1. Older HN story, London Is Gonna Be Pissed, But We Prefer Berlin for Startups (techcrunch.com) http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2573513 2. http://siliconallee.com/

Berlin - https://www.siliconallee.com/

https://geekli.st/home http://www.webespy.com/ http://breue.com/ http://thisweekinstartups.com/ https://news.layervault.com/ http://www.crunchbase.com/ https://www.angel.co/ http://www.betali.st/ http://betali.st/startups http://www.romanianstartups.com/ http://www.startupli.st/ http://www.kickoffboost.com/ http://www.geekopedia.me/startupsubmit/ http://www.killerstartups.com/ http://www.startupbird.com/ http://www.ratemystartup.com/ http://www.new-startups.com/ http://www.nextbigwhat.com/ http://www.leanstack.io/ http://www.launchingnext.com/ http://www.startupproject.org/ http://www.erlibird.com/ http://www.thestartuppitch.com/ http://www.startuplift.com/ http://www.feedmyapp.com/submit/ http://www.siliconallee.com/contact http://www.f6s.com/ http://www.paggu.com/ http://www.aboutyourstartup.com/ http://www.eu-startups.com/directory/ http://www.go2web20.net/ http://www.101bestwebsites.com/ http://www.vator.tv/ http://www.springwise.com/ http://www.techpluto.com http://www.cee-startups.com/ http://www.appuseful.com/ http://www.startupwizz.com/ http://www.startuptunes.com/ http://www.venturebeatprofiles.com/ http://www.techhunger.com/ https://www.gust.com http://www.cee-startups.com/ http://www.startupbook.co http://www.launch.it/contact_form/1/0/contact http://www.netted.net/contact-us/ http://www.minisprout.com/about/ http://www.makeuseof.com/contact-team/ http://www.venturevillage.eu/about-us/contact/ http://www.appvita.com/…

I've added a few more to that list: * https://news.ycombinator.com/news (Show HN) * http://www.reddit.com/r/startups * http://www.reddit.com/r/sideproject * http://thenextweb.com/market/ * http://momb.socio-kybernetics.net/ * http://headlinr.com/ * https://www.favsync.com/common/publicTab/v274z25464-3312a1d297ed261ecb… * http://www.crunchbase.com/ * https://www.angel.co/ * http://www.betali.st/ * http://www.romanianstartups.com/ * http://www.startupli.st/ * http://www.kickoffboost.com/ * http://www.geekopedia.me/startupsubmit/ * http://www.killerstartups.com/ * http://www.startupbird.com/ * http://www.ratemystartup.com/ * http://www.new-startups.com/ * http://www.nextbigwhat.com/ * http://www.leanstack.io/ * http://www.launchingnext.com/ * http://www.startupproject.org/ * http://www.erlibird.com/ * http://www.thestartuppitch.com/ * http://www.startuplift.com/ * http://www.feedmyapp.com/submit/ * http://www.siliconallee.com/contact * http://www.f6s.com/ * http://www.paggu.com/ * http://www.aboutyourstartup.com/ * http://www.eu-startups.com/directory/ * http://www.go2web20.net/ * http://www.101bestwebsites.com/ * http://www.vator.tv/ * http://www.springwise.com/ * http://www.techpluto.com * http://www.cee-startups.com/ * http://www.appuseful.com/ * http://www.startupwizz.com/ * http://www.startuptunes.com/ * http://www.venturebeatprofiles.com/ * http://www.techhunger.com/ *…

We're launching Blogvio (http://www.blogvio.com) tomorrow, after 10 months of work. We submitted the project to the following websites: 1. CrunchBase http://www.crunchbase.com/company/blogvio 2. Angel List https://www.angel.co/blogvio 3. http://www.betali.st/ 39$ - http://betali.st/startups/blogvio 4. http://www.romanianstartups.com/ 5. http://www.startupli.st/ 6. http://www.kickoffboost.com/ 7. http://www.geekopedia.me/startupsubmit/ 8. http://www.killerstartups.com/ 9. http://www.startupbird.com/ 10. http://www.ratemystartup.com/ 11. http://www.new-startups.com/ 12. http://www.nextbigwhat.com/ 13. http://www.leanstack.io/ 14. http://www.launchingnext.com/ 15. http://www.startupproject.org/ 16. http://www.erlibird.com/ - they ask 199$. 17. http://www.thestartuppitch.com/ 18. http://www.startuplift.com/ 19. http://www.feedmyapp.com/submit/ (http://feedmyapp.com/p/a/blogvio/28928) 20. http://www.siliconallee.com/contact 21. http://www.f6s.com/ 22. http://www.paggu.com/ 23. http://www.aboutyourstartup.com/ (http://aboutyourstartup.com/?s=blogvio) 24. http://www.eu-startups.com/directory/ 25. http://www.go2web20.net/ 26. http://www.101bestwebsites.com/ 27. http://www.vator.tv/ 28. http://www.springwise.com/ 29. http://www.techpluto.com 30. http://www.cee-startups.com/ 31. http://www.appuseful.com/ 32. http://www.startupwizz.com/ 33. http://www.startuptunes.com/ - http://directory.startuptunes.com/b/Blogvio 34.…

These are the sites I tend to read: France: http://www.rudebaguette.com/ Germany: http://venturevillage.eu/ and http://siliconallee.com/ Eastern Europe: http://goaleurope.com/ Europe in general: http://blogs.wsj.com/tech-europe/ + http://thenextweb.com/eu/ + http://gigaom.com/europe/ My guess is that sooner or later there will be some publication, in English, covering startups in southern Europe (Italy, Spain, etc).

Hard evidence? No. And I'm not even saying that Germany has that much more (or more per capita) than some other countries. It's just an annoying trend that I've noticed (and I'm not the only one, cf. links at the end). Don't get me wrong, there are many interesting startups, especially the smaller ones. But for a time there was an alarming trend of just taking an US product, and creating a German version of it. And then not keeping up with the original. Of course it's never easy to say where you'd draw the line between copycat and competitor. Xing and Linkedin might be the latter, but StudiVZ and facebook? Quite often there's not much valued added besides the translation (myvideo vs youtube), and once the original gets a German localization… The problem for me is that I'd actually like some German equivalents of some US apps (e.g. netflix, okcupid, mint), but I'd prefer if their implementors would add some passion to it. If you don't restrict yourself to German-language internet, some things often look rather familiar. And, as I said above, quite often that means that there's no excited (and exciting) company behind it, and so nobody will introduce interesting features in the future – or at least keep up with the interesting features of the original. Who's to blame (assuming this is no figment of my biased imagination)? Hard to say. Maybe because there's no breeding ground for new ideas comparable to SV or NYC here (although Berlin might be there or almost), maybe…